Faith + Love

1 Corinthians 13:13 says “There are three things that will endure – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.”

There is a story of my brother Gabriel, a story that will last for the length of time in this nation and in the nation of Grenada.  Why?  Because it has been and will continue to be passed on from generation to generation.

My brother was a missionary in Grenada for two years and was swimming with a group of people from the States one day in the ocean near their home base.  To make a long story short, a young man had gone swimming out beyond where you should go and was swept out into the hazardous depths of the ocean by the raging waves.  The people in his group noticed he was being swept out when my brother decided to swim out after this young man.  The story goes that when my brother reached the young man they were around 100 meters out from shore and were being pulled even further.  They tried to swim back to shore but were pushed even faster and further out to sea from the relentless waves.  They’d gotten so far out that there was no hope of rescue; the locals told the members of the group standing on the shore that they were as good as dead.  My brother and the young man became so exhausted from swimming that they began to sink beneath the surface of the ocean, as they sank and began to drown my brother began to talk to God and remind Him that nothing good could come from him drowning in the ocean, that God needed to do something to save their lives.  At that moment my brother and the young man were suddenly and miraculously taken and moved from sinking beneath the ocean to standing in a safe zone and were able to walk to shore.

Matthew 21:21-22 says “Then Jesus told them, I assure you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more.  You can even say to this mountain, “May God lift you up and throw you into the sea, and it will happen.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

We know that faith can move mountains; Matthew 21:21 just told us so.  But what happens when we combine our faith and our love?  How much more could happen in our lives when we combine the two?  1 Corinthians said that out of faith, hope, and love the greatest is love.  But faith has the ability to move a mountain!  I wonder how much more love can do and how much more faith + love can accomplish in our lives and in the lives of those we encounter.

What I love so much about the story of my brother is not just the miracle of being translated to safety and saved from death.  What I love is my brother’s courage and my brother’s love for the life of someone else.  See, faith would have looked like my brother gathering the others in the group standing on the shore and praying for the young man to be rescued or for God to perform a miracle of some sort.  Faith, although needed, would have kept my brother safe on the shore praying.  Faith + Love took my brother from his safety on the shore and brought him into the raging sea, into the thrashing waves, into the place of death, and his Faith + Love brought about a miracle of biblical proportions.

How much more can we accomplish for the Kingdom of God when we, like my brother, use the equation of Faith + Love in our lives and in the lives of all those we encounter. 

I believe I will see those astounding miracles I crave to see and experience in my life when I not only pray the prayers of faith but when I allow my love for God and for humanity to bring me into those raging sea’s and position myself for God to deliver me and work a miracle in my life.

This weekend I am departing for Los Angeles where I am going as part of a team of teenagers from my home church to bring a message of hope to the people of that city.  We are not just praying the prayers of faith for Los Angeles but we will be using that equation of Faith + Love and getting into it, positioning ourselves for God to work those astonishing miracles in our lives and all those we encounter.

Pray for us, pray for the team, pray that we are lead by the Holy Spirit and pray that we have more than enough opportunities to combine our Faith and Love and expand the Kingdom of God in the city of Los Angeles.

Solution to striving.

Tonight, November 13th, I got in my car to drive out and get a coffee because I was bored sitting at my house.  As I got in the car I started thinking about what has been going on in my life lately. Then I heard God say to me "clarity does not come in striving, clarity comes in peace."

There have been so many negative things happening all around me over the last few days.  Stress of traveling half way across the country for the Holidays and all that goes along with it.  Friends who are facing unthinkable devastation in their family.  My church back home facing difficulties to the worst degree.  My family members experiencing sickness and fear.  Church members facing sickness to the verge of death.  And all of that on top of typical stress with life.  I have been quietly wondering what I am supposed to do, what can I do to change things in my life and to help all these people around me.  It has been impossible to focus on one issue because there are so many different things weighing on my mind.

I have begun to shut down to it all.  Too tired to seriously think about it and even more tired to do anything about it.  The thought of facing these issues has left me telling myself to just sit back and watch what happens.  Instead of adjusting to overcome the issues I have been doing nothing but waiting to see what is left after the destruction.

Without doing anything I have been striving internally.  It is like warning signals are going off inside and all around me.  When I begin thinking about one issue another area of issues pops up and takes my focus away.  I have been striving like never before.  My thoughts have been clouded and I have not been myself.

It is natural to strive when things go wrong.  Maybe things went wrong because I was not showing enough attention to a specific area.  If I strive to figure things out I can somehow fix it all.

God is showing me that relief and clarity do not come in striving, they come in peace.

Earlier today I was so exhausted from it all that I couldn't get out of my bed.  I needed to get up and go to church to get some things done but I literally could not get out of bed.  I stayed there and thought "God what do I need to be learning right now?"  His response was " Trust Me."
Right then and there I stood up, got dressed, and began saying out loud what I believed about God and my life.  I started saying "I am a son of Abraham and his blessings are mine.  I am blessed in my coming and blessed in my going.  I am blessed in the city and blessed in the field.  My descendants will be as vast as the stars in the skies."  "I am a brother of Jesus and a son to The Father.  He has a plan for my life.  A plan for good and not for evil.  I have been healed and blessed and I am prosperous."  I audibly spoke anything and everything I could think of that told me who I am in Christ Jesus.  I was not thinking about the issues I was dealing with, I was not thinking about solutions to my problems.  I was focusing on who I was in Christ.  I had stopped striving and instead confessed who I was in total peace.

Psalm 34:4,5 says
   4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
   5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

Among other things the hebrew word for "sought" means to "frequently follow".  Following someone can be difficult or easy depending on the trail you are on.  Jesus said in Matthew "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Therefore we know that frequently following Him will not be a burden we are unable to handle.

To seek The Lord is not to strive.  To seek The Lord is to remain in peace in His presence and in the understanding and knowledge of who you are in Him.

My plan to succeed during these times of difficulty in my life is to remain in His presence and to remain in His peace.  To remind myself daily who I am in Him and to remind myself of His promises to me.  I never asked God to make the promises to me, I wasn't alive when He made them.  Therefore I do not feel guilty or greedy when I remind Him what He said He would do.  He said He would do all things according to His glory.  He said He would do exceedingly and abundantly beyond all I could ask or think.  I refuse to feel greedy when I expect Him to hold true to His word.

Wherever you are right now, if things in life are falling to pieces, if friends and family members are going through tough times, or if things are great for you, choose to remain in His peace and refuse to strive for the answer to your prayers.

What I've learned over 100,000 words.

This is the 100th blog I have written for my own site.  I am not wildly famous and millions of people do not read my blogs each time I post something new.  Still the fact I have written over 100,000 words spreading over a time frame of two years means something to me.  This is an accomplishment I can say I am proud of.  If nobody reads my posts or if everyone reads them it's still something I can look at and say "I did this."

I've been thinking for the last two weeks about what I should write.  This being my 100th post, I feel like it should be something of significance.  Maybe some wisdom I've gained over the last two years, or some divine inspiration Christ almighty released to me one night while I was fast asleep.  As I thought about the subject I realized the best topic I could write about would be Jesus.  I don't boast this blog as being strictly spiritual, although 99% of the posts have been spiritually based.  If anything I've turned this blog into a public journal of sorts.  I do my very best to write about the things circling my head and my heart.  They may be immature at times, they may be brilliant, they may be sad in some way, but the one thing I have never done is care how people would view me through my writing.  I learned in the beginning to write for myself and never change my writing to suit the reader.  When I change my thoughts or my feelings through my writing I become a fake, I become the worst sort of person there is, the sort of person that is not themselves.

Having said all that, I hope you enjoy my 100th blog post.  I hope you continue to read what I have to say and I hope that you like it on Facebook, Share it with all your friends, re-tweet my links on twitter, and quote me while you're out in bars talking with people you know.  (yes, I am that shallow).

So, without further ado, I present to you, my 100th blog.


I was watching Joseph Prince the other morning as I sat in my living room drinking coffee with my roommates(Mom and Dad).  He was talking about something, honestly I don't exactly remember what.  However, he said he didn't care about his name or the fame of his ministry.  His job through his ministry was to point people to Jesus.  Now I've read where paul says this is every ministers job in life, to preach Jesus Christ.  When I watched as Joseph Prince said this it struck a chord inside and made me think.

It's a little silly to even think about this.  Of course I'm supposed to point people to Christ.  I am a Christian and I believe the only way to The Father, the only way to be forgiven of my sins, the only way to salvation is through Jesus.  That's not something I should really need to think about, it's not a complex issue, it's rather simple and straight forward.

In my blogs I've talked about relationships, about forgiveness and letting go of my past, about moving forward in life, about becoming the person God designed me to become, and many other topics.  What's the central theme amongst all those posts?  Jesus.  Whether I specifically say "The only way to truly love is to turn to Jesus and love Him" or not, the fact remains, Jesus is the way to love because He Himself is love.  Jesus is literally everything we need to live, to love, to forgive, to forget our past, to press forward, to be set free, to be healed and whole, and to be good.  We are unable to do any of these things or become any of these things without Jesus.

When Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross at calvary, when He was buried and rose from the grave 3 days later, He defeated the power of death and the grave.  I believe death comes in many variations.  Obviously there is physical death, there is the spiritual death which could be explained as the difference between heaven and hell.  Then there is death that can overtake our lives while we're still breathing.  There is the death that can be inflicted upon our lives when tragedy strikes.  That tragedy can take many shapes and forms.  That tragedy, or death, can take hold of our lives when our parents divorce, or when one of our parents vanishes from our lives.  It can take hold when we're in a relationship and we're cheated on, when someone breaks our heart, when a friend causes pain in our lives and we hold onto that bitterness.  That death can take hold of our lives when we hold onto unforgiveness and refuse to let the hurt inflicted by those people and circumstances leave our hearts.

For example, I held onto bitterness and anger towards people in my past that had hurt me for years. Now, I didn't walk around broken and angry all the time.  I didn't get in random fights with people because I was so angry.  I simply would not forgive these people from my past and allow the bitterness to leave my heart.  Because of this inability to let go I remained in the same position in life for years.  I didn't grow or mature because I was stuck in the past of my hatred and dysfunction. Again, I didn't walk around filed with rage or obvious anger.  However, because I couldn't forgive these people and love them I, in some way, hated them.  That's the opposite of love and forgiveness, hatred.

 In the book of Matthew Jesus says "So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23, 24 ESV)

We are supposed to live our lives as offerings and sacrifices to the Lord, not only when we're in church but constantly through our lives in the everyday.  Which means that at any time I'm alive and awake and I am reminded of someone who is upset with me or someone I am upset with, I should stop what I am doing and go make things right.  I need to forgive them and ask them to forgive me so we can both be set free.

I can understand that this seems like an impossible task.  "Well I didn't do anything wrong."  "I was the one cheated on."  "They were wrong, not me!"  "They abandoned me!"   These are the same excuses I used for years so I can understand trying to justify staying in the place of bitterness and pain.

Jesus came to give you and me life and more abundantly.  Trust me when I say Jesus didn't sacrifice His life so you and I could wallow in our past pain for our entire lives.  Jesus came to this earth and died for you and me so we could be set free from this darkness.  Yes, He came to make a way for us to live eternity in heaven and be with Him because of His grace.  Equally as significant, He came to earth and died for us because He loves us unconditionally and wants to see you and I set free and living life to the fullest.

There is a word used in the bible "SOZO".  It means "Saved, Healed, Delivered."  This is what Jesus came for, to provide us with "SOZO".  That we may be saved from the power of sin and death, that we may be healed from our sickness and pain, and that we may be delivered from our past, from our dysfunction, and from our hurts and bitterness.

How do we take hold of everything Jesus has given us?  We ask Him.  We call out to His name and freely receive everything He already gave us when He rose from the grave.  We love Him, we follow Him.  You don't have to be a man or a woman of prayer, you don't have to say anything special, you don't even have to sound eloquent when you pray.  Just pray and ask Jesus to release His love, healing, salvation, forgiveness, and freedom into your life.  Please, ask Him, He never fails, He never gives up, He always loves, He always shows up, He always provides.

Jesus Said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7, 8 ESV)

All you have to do is ask and seek Him.  He loves you unconditionally and will provide your freedom and healing.

Someone who is very close to me, someone whom I love dearly, once asked me to show them how to love.  I wasn't sure how to explain love at the time.  I wasn't sure how to show them how to love except through my loving them.  Today I feel like I have a better way to show someone how to love.  That is to look to Jesus.  For Jesus, before we were created, before any of the things around us today existed, loved us so much that He freely laid down His life for ours that we could live a life of significance.  That we could live life to the fullest, that we could live life free and whole, that we could live life in love.  What greater gift could anyone receive than the ability to live their life in complete love, free from the walls that guard their heart.

I will make my last words of this post reflect possibly the greatest example of the pure love Jesus has for humanity.  Before I share this example please note that His love is just as strong, just as sincere, and just as tangible today as it was so many years ago.

While Jesus was hanging on the cross at calvary and the people gathered round began mocking Him, while the roman soldiers gambled for His cloths, while the Pharisee's walked by and spit on Him in disgust, Jesus's words, found in Luke chapter 23 were "Father, forgive these people because they don't know what they are doing."
Even on His cross, Jesus loved His enemies, the ones that were murdering Him.